One of the seventeen Sustainable Development Goals is “sustainable production and consumption” that includes all related stakeholders including raw material supply system, manufacturing, distribution, service and disposal. Sustainable food products will provide environmental, social and economic benefits while protecting public health, welfare, and environment over their entire life cycle, from the extraction of raw materials to final disposition. The food industry is a powerhouse for the global economy. In order to succeed in the sustainability applications for the food sector, it is of great importance to bring standardization on the main pillars of sustainability, especially on environment with globally accepted standards on integrated resource and chemical management together with waste and emission prevention. UN associated offices and related stakeholders in food industry has combined economic growth with respect to planetary boundaries. Reconciling World development with Earth sustainability can be explored with Sustainable Development Goals so that global economic development can be achieved within human health and ecological health. Manufacturing processes in food sector lead to generation of various types of wastes, secondary products, by-products that has to be utilized in an integrated way. Regarding the content of the project, one of the main focus points is external reusability and recyclability applications for by-products. This will be provided through industrial symbiosis guide covering all the details of external management of production waste in upgraded applications of environmental management applications with a special emphasize on cleaner production. Environmental problems generated in a local area can easily scale up to a regional problem, which brings the need for collaboration on a wider, regional basis. As food production is one of the largest manufacturing sector in Turkey, food industry has an important role on national economy and increasing its export potential steadily. Within this frame, food producers from different countries need to collaborate to sustain their international market. Moreover, they need to sustain their product quality and production quality in terms of supply chain management. Considering the Sustainable Development Goals and Paris Agreement, countries have already agreed on reduction of carbon emissions. However, the dependence of the global food system on fossil fuels contributes to GHG emissions and may increase input costs to the extent that they become unaffordable. Project partners will contribute as multidisciplinary team of researchers with their established knowledge in their field. The nested structure of this project will contribute to the growing body of research in integrated waste management opportunities. For this concern, in order to develop a bridge with the aforementioned issues and successful application of zero waste management in food sector in the partner countries; a pollution prevention ladder stage based approach is planned to be used in the training contents. The pollution prevention ladder gives an overview of several environment oriented activities pursued in business. The scope of the project will cover external and internal reuse-recycle-repair-rethink-reduce options for integrated waste management system with the main target of efficient zero waste application. This project has 9 partners from 6 countries. Applicant organisation is İstanbul Provincial Directorate of Environment and Urbanisation. Governorship of İstanbul (TR), Boğaziçi University(TR), ENAİP LOMBARDİA(IT), MANRA(ES), Media Creativa(ES), Latvia University of Life Sciences and Technologies(LVA), Exponential Training & Assessment Limited(UK), Kaunas Food Industry and Trade Training Centre(LT) are project partners. This partnership will create following outputs: 1)IO1: Comprehensive Framework on Waste Management Applications in Europe and A Comparative Report (on Current Legislation) 2) IO2: Waste Management Skills Defined in Food Sector and the Training Curriculum (EQF4); 3) IO3: Training Content For Waste Management in Food Sector; 4) IO4: Enriched Educational Materials and E-learning Platform; 5) IO5: Industrial Symbiosis Guide 6) IO6: White Paper: Recommendation Paper on Waste Management in Food Sector In terms of project management, we will have Quality Management Plan(including assessment tools and risk management plan) and Dissemination Plan. We will realize 1 LTT short-term staff training as well as 5 TPMs. Moreover, 6 MEs will be held to disseminate project results.
In the project; To reach more people by disseminating what can be done about zero waste in the food industry through the documents we prepare and the meetings we hold, Ensuring the reuse of primary and secondary products in the food industry and reducing the amount of waste, There are not many publications and reports on waste management in the food industry. Therefore, we set an example for those working in this field with national reports, comparative reports and notification publications, Improving the waste management skills of current employees and future employees of the food industry, helping employees and students learn how to manage waste safety in the workplace, To contribute to scientific knowledge on waste management, To ensure that the sector has a more sustainable profile in the long term by contributing to the academic and career development of vocational high school students and employees in terms of integrated waste management and zero waste management in the food sector, To provide a technical guide/document on industrial symbiosis practices to sector actors in all fields (academic, private sector, etc.), In addition, to improve the competencies of our partners in this field so that they can more successfully train students who will be professionals in the food industry and receive information from different types of partners (other vocational training centers, universities, official institutions, etc.), To improve the qualifications of teachers in the field of waste management, Developing the new curriculum of the Zero Waste management program, To exchange information about waste management theory, To learn about different waste management practices in each participating country and expand the partnership network for future cooperation, We wanted to gain experience in developing study programs on sustainable waste management for both academic students and industry professionals. Additionally, since there was no such training on food waste management in partner countries, we contributed to the first training curriculum developed. The training curriculum is expected to be used in personnel training in both vocational high schools and food companies. The curriculum will be used for the first time in training organizations to develop the skills of future employees. The implementation process will make it possible to experience the practical aspects of the training with students and employees.
To contribute to the successful implementation of zero waste management in the food sector in partner countries through the project, as well as development of the waste management system in selected sub-areas in the food sector, to contribute to the development and improvement of integrated waste management as well as zero waste management in the food sector at the international level, reuse-recycling We applied to promote -repair-rethink-waste reduction options and therefore save more energy and natural resources. With this project, we saw the work done on zero waste waste management and sustainability practices in other countries. By conducting a SWOT analysis, we identified examples that were made in other countries, that were done in our country, and that were not done. We determined what we could do. In the modules we chose, we wanted to ensure that production and consumption were sustainable for zero waste studies, waste was reduced as much as possible, and the waste generated in production was managed correctly. We enriched our training programs compatible with the project area. In addition to the existing programs in schools, we contributed to the development of the curriculum of these programs and the addition of Zero Waste to the relevant curricula in accordance with the latest EU policies and education. With the paper obtained at the end of the project; We aimed to support scientists working on this subject. We addressed the need to involve our scientists and students in new research directions that could be further developed by different scientific and practical attitudes, thereby strengthening the connection of our study programs with zero waste needs. We prepared training concepts for our modules and conducted detailed research on 9 sub-sectors. We provided online/face-to-face training in schools. We came together with representatives of the sub-sector we are interested in and held mutual information meetings. We shared the prepared symbiosis guide and handbook with students, teachers, academicians and sector representatives. So we became involved in an Erasmus+ project, connecting with partners across Europe.